We Don't Just Excel, We Axel

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  I'd just set up my first one-on-one lesson with the Tammasaurus . Some called me insane, the others were taking bets on how long I'd survive... This is a rather long post, I apologise for that, but if you want a taste of what my first private lesson was like then I recommend consuming the whole thing in one sitting - that's right, the food metaphor has already begun - as my first lesson proved to be a similar feat of endurance. ------------------------- Sweat poured off my face, my hair was already soaked and I was beet red as I puffed for breath in the middle of the rink. I hoped, in that instance, that I could've been described as a "hot mess", but I've long suspected that my hair drenched in sweat doesn't look in any way as sexy as it can do on some people. Side note - At this point, I was going to illustrate ...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  Two months-ish into the 5-8 group , I'm enjoying the progress plus David and the group are nice, but... ------------------------- The time had come, I was ready to take another step on the rung towards becoming a real figure skating community member (not that I wasn't already but dramatic effect yo!) It was time to find my own coach. We'd been doing similar kinds of exercises for a few weeks in the 5-8 group class, but, despite David's fun stretch & reach goals , I had reviewed the Skate UK skill requirements and figured I was basically at the end of it all. Sure, I could probably refine the stuff we were doing over a long period of practice, but I'd noticed so far that continuing to do new stuff helped me approach old skills in new ways, so everything got a little easier as I progressed. Sadly, in terms of progressing, the...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background: Still around the month and a half mark in the 5-8 class by this point. ------------------------- "How about we give some choctaws a go?" David smiled broadly at his suggestion. David was a fan of implementing "stretch and reach" goals for our class; he didn't call them that, but that's what they were. "Stretch & Reach" was (probably still is) a policy used in some UK school education to help indicate to kids what they had to do in their work in order to be working at a higher grade of competency than they currently were, or to indicate how they could go beyond what was required of the expected standard at their level. Stretch and reach goals made sense in the 5-8 class as, broadly speaking, we'd all covered the 5-8 material even if we weren't doing it with any great skill, so, in the spirit of doi...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background: I'd been enjoying the 5-8 class for a month or so by this point. ------------------------- " That doesn't look so hard... " I thought to myself as I stood on the rink one morning. Do other adult skaters have this kind of thought a lot? I was watching another skater - the classic, young girl skater type - and her coach on the centre circle as the coach tried to get the girl to do what I'd later come to know as the 3 jump (waltz jump for those across the pond). For the uninitiated, it's a half-rotation jump that you start gliding forwards on one leg, and do, what is effectively, a hop onto the other leg. You do a half rotation in the air to land backwards. My hunger for new skating moves was always on the edge of my mind, nagging away at me when I got a bit bored of practising something I'd been doing for a few weeks. I...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background: Another departure from the usual HP format. Time to introduce a new cast member! Note: this post probably won't display well on mobile, apologies if you're reading via that medium! ------------------------- She tosses her lustrous, blonde locks over the shoulders of her gilet as she sets her coffee down on the rink barrier and steps out firmly onto the ice. Your eyes are immediately dazzled by the neon pink snow pants now emerging from behind the barrier as she strokes slowly around the ice, her eyes sweeping the rink as she surveys her realm. These snow pants are her crown jewels; a striking pink beacon on the ice that sets her apart amongst the sea of fast-moving black leggings and grey tops the other skaters are wearing. As you watch her skate, you start to appreciate her stance: precisely-balanced and graceful, her years of training clea...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  I'm about a month into the 5-8 group in this moment. ------------------------- Head Coach Jane was in charge of us this week as David was off sick. Some of us had enjoyed Jane's last foray into our lessons so having her again was met with an undercurrent of excitement by those of us from before, and the usual wariness of a new coach from the others that hadn't had her. One of the things that I like about Jane is her willingness to push the limits of skaters' comfort zones with new material. Adult classes can be a little wary of anything that sounds too insane but Jane doesn't shy away from pushing people as she knows that everyone is capable of doing what she suggests and there are always ways of simplifying anything that seems too difficult at first. We worked through a variety of exercises from basic stroking to warm up (e...

Usual disclaimer applies: this is an old event I'm recounting. See  my first HP post  for the full notes on these. Background:  I'm now up in the 5-8 class with David as the group coach. ------------------------- Following in the footsteps of his forebears, David was yet another enthusiastic and friendly coach - clearly these are the traits of UK, male coaches! Furthermore, for a sport so heavily populated by women then the coaching gender demographic at my rink is comparatively very balanced between the sexes. One of the funny things about moving up to the 5-8 class was that, while there was an extra layer of nuance on top of many of the skills I'd done before, Ashley and Jason had worked with us quite a bit on the 5-8 skills instead of moving us up sooner so we were reasonably able to keep up with the standard of the current 5-8 people. They were obviously still better than us, but many of the things we were struggling with (* cough * 3 turns and backward cros...